The Penn's Grove record., 1887-10-29
COL. MARDEN'S SUBSTITUTE.

~tOA
q good townsman, contented with a
world that, save for one misfortune,
long ago forgotten, had used him well.
Few then had sufficient ability them.
selves to measure the ability that had
made him a power in the town-that
would have made him a power through
out the land had it not been for that
which he had forgotten"
Only the death blow to his ambition.
When the Grand Army of the Potomac
had disbanded, Colonel Marden, with a
Confederate bullet in his side, had re-
sumed his pra tice of the law. Still in
the twenties, he was sent to General
Court, and before long to Congress.
He was spoken of as one OF the rising
men Of New Hampshire.
1t was then that the bullet began to
assert itself, and the end Of it all was
that Alfred Marden had to give up all
active work, accept the position OF
Register of Probate, and resign himself
to spending the rest Of his days in his
native town, only occupying himself
with the light duties of his office.
Downright idleness would have been
intolerable to him.
A quiet. unenterprising town was
Townsend, but 1t was his native place,
and the big, gray stone house had
stood on the square since the days when
1t was in the midst of green fields, and
half the town was esquire Marden's"
farm.
"a smart man, and a good one."
everybody said of the present Squire.
Lyaruhndu hut nnn m fpn onn1
man, and a smart one," said that one
OF two.
He had always been interested 1
the Academy and had done much for
it. But the offer he had last fall over
Swallowed everything else. 1t was made
to the graduating class, and conduct
In school and out-and recitations
througho t the year to be considered.
What boyish heart did not throb as the
Colonel spoke to them that memorable
Monday.
Think Of it. The lucky fellow was
to be sent to Dartmouth, and then
would receive a law education in Colo
mel Marden's own office. Not only
gartuitously, but, for five years after
graduation, In receipt of a handsome
salary Is clerk. He meant, Colonel
Marden concluded, to give the winner
of the prize precisely the same advant-
ages he himself had had. Nobody
heard the sigh as he sat down, though.
indeed, 1t would have been difficult to
have heard anything as the boys took
in this magnificent offer and clapped,
cheered, and pounded in the unmis-
taxable fashion boys have of manifest
ing their approval.
No wonder every one Of the twenty
made up his mind that he would win
the ''Judgesbip" as 1t grew to be
called, or that for the next few weeks
there was such perfection Of ~recitations
and conduct that Mr.. Alden thought
the millennium had set in. Every one,
no matter how hopeless the case, from
Sandy Magee, always at the foot, up
through the whole scale of ability and
perseverance to the two who, after
those first few weeks. began slowly to
distance the others.
Arthur Rand was a minister's son,
and the struggle it would be to mis-
father to send him to college was a
large factor in his determination TO
win. He was a pleasant, gentleman
nered boy, naturally painstaking and
meth0dical, not quick, but with an
indomitable power of sticking at it,
| that had always insured him victory.
Sam Allen was the eldest Of half q
dozen who had grown up somehow in
the big farmhouse just outside Of the
| village. His father was a hard-work.
ing farmer with no thought beyond his
| daily labor, and considering he had
done enough by his children that they
were clad and fed in plain, homely
fashion. Too much dedication" was
bad for soul and body, and he had the
| prejudices of his class against lawyers.
Sam had had hard work to get per
mission to 60 to the Academy at all
but for more ~money-even to give HIN
his time-to be expended on his educa.
ton, that his father had refused to
consider, and his nay was indeed nay.
But when Sam had come home last
september, trimming over with the
great news, Mr.. Allen had relaxed, fol
to his hard grasping nature the idea Of
his son getting an education at an,
others expense was irresistably at
~tractive, and he had promised the
eager, trembling boy he would give
him the last year at tie Academy and
his time should he win, with the pro.
vlso that If he failed he should SETTLE
down to farm work without any more
"pestering of him." And Sam on hi!
side promised.
He had all the support of the other.
though, not only in the sympathy tina
is SO great a help in our e~ndeavors, but
one and all strove to tighten his chores
that he might have more time to study
In solemn conclave, Jerry proposed tt
take on himself the milking and wood
chopping, Billy to pump water ant
feed the hens, while the girls agreed
not to call upon him for a single errant
and to put their money together, hardly
earned by berry picking and dandelior
gathering, to buy a student lamp like
Colonel Marden's SO that Sam coult
study by a good light, and they woult
not speak a single word all through
the evening, SO the kitchen, the only